This volume presents the most extensive and representative collection of traditional Vietnamese verse yet available in a Western language. The nearly 480 poems, originally written either in Vietnamese or in classical Chinese between the end of the tenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, are arranged thematically and include complete versions of six long poems that are among the most beloved in the language: "The song of a soldier's wife," " A plaint inside the royal harem," "Calling all wandering souls," "The quarrel of the six domestic beasts," " The catfish and the toad," and "The debate between the flowers and the birds." Huy?nh Sanh Tho?ng's introduction sketches the evolution of Vietnamese poetry over the centuries and discusses Chinese influence as well as features derived from folk tradition which set Vietnamese poetry apart as an original entity. A study of the poems answers some questions about the dual, ambivalent process of cultural borrowing and cultural resistance in Vietnam, and it provides instructive glimpses of traditional Vietnamese society as viewed from the vantage of the educated elite during a thousand-year span. Informative and entertaining notes, together with biographical sketches of the poets, an index of poets and poems, and a bibliography, enhance the book's interest and usefulness for both the general reader and the scholar. Huy?nh Sanh Tho?ng is a Vietnamese scholar whose blank verse rendition of Nguye??n Du's narrative poem, The Tale of Kie??u, was published in 1973 to wide acclaim. - Dust jacket.